Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of increasing (a) registration, (b) geofencing and (c) remote identification requirements for (i) drones and (ii) drone components in order to improve (A) traceability and (B) enforcement.

This Government is delivering the following reforms in the Unmanned Aircraft (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

(a) All drones weighing 100g or more with a camera must be registered from 1^st January 2026.

(b) Drones weighing 250g or more must have geo-awareness requirements from 1^st January 2026. Then, from 1^st January 2028, Geo-awareness requirements will apply to all drones weighing 100g or more with a camera.

(c) Drones weighing 250g or more must have remote identification (RID) requirements from 1^st January 2026. Then, from 1^st January 2028, RID will apply to drones weighing 100g or more with a camera.

These reforms will improve traceability because they will enforce the registration of a RID “digital numberplate” that can be linked to a registered operator. Geo-awareness and RID will help law enforcement to target the actively non-compliant drones that have switched off RID and are ignoring geo-awareness alerts of airspace restrictions, therefore reducing the volume of incidents and length of investigation for suspicious drone activity.